A Restless Life

I feel like I'm writing an multi-part piece on delayed gratification, as today is all about making the hard decisions.  From Isaiah, we hear that God will send out "fugitives" to the land, and we hear from Jesus in the Gospel that we should strive for the narrow gate.  How often have we read/heard of how Jesus, his disciples, and the prophets of the Old Testament were ostracized and treated like fugitives for spreading the word of God?  Often in this life, we must go against the grain, make the disciplined and hard decision to be a follower of Jesus.  The opportunity has been offered to us, but we must steel ourselves against the temptations and distractions of the day to be able to truly receive the gift that has given.  Disclaimer: This will be at the bottom of all reflections, but I’m not intending to put out any sort of professional critique, attempt at a homily, or investigation into the historicity of the readings, but will “let the Spirit move me” as some...

This week is about the hard truth of the Gospel.  God, through Jesus, has promised salvation, and this is undeniable.  However, we may (and will) endure hardships if way follow the way of Jesus.  Too often, it is easy to be like those in the besieged city who cast Jeremiah into the well - we bury the truth we hear from God because it is hard to accept.  It is temping to avoid the hardships, put them off for today in vain hopes that they will disappear into the ether and tomorrow will not share that burden.   But that is not how life works.  Even Jesus tells us in this Gospel reading that to follow him will be hard, and we may end up standing in contrast to those we hold dearest to our heart.  And yet, we must try to stay firm in our pursuit of the truth and love given from God.  Think of the devotion with which Paul writes to the Hebrews, speaking of the freedom we can give ourselves if only we shed the burdens of temptation and sin that surr...

The delay of gratification.  That can be an accurate summary for the Christian Life.  At all times, we are called to balance the needs of our basic, primal nature as creatures of the earth with the higher, spiritual needs that await us beyond.  And as Christians, we are called to skew that balance, to take less than we need and give more than is comfortable.  But do we always do that?  I know that I cannot claim to do so.  And yet throughout of history as laid out in God's Word, we see the rewards to those who have been able to master themselves.   This weekend, we hear a line from Jesus's parable in Luke's Gospel that is so impactful and meaningful to me that I have the verse written on a post-it note and placed on my dresser.  The notion that Jesus tells all of us that, and I'll paraphrase a little here, to those of us who have been given much, much will be expected.  We all have gifts given to us from God, and we are all called to use...